Breaking Bad Season 3, Episode 8 -- I See You

This is my rather late posting on this week's Breaking Bad, and it is more of my impressions than a straight recap.

I am impressed by the savvy and the well-honed manipulation by Gus Frings in this episode. Under the meticulously assembled guise of benevolent philanthropist and prominent local businessman -- operator of the Los Pollos Hermanos fast food chain -- Gus literally had the competition blown away, and solidified his position as the undisputed meth kingpin of Albuquerque.

During the marathon vigil over the critically wounded Hank at the hospital, Walter Jr. showed his copy of Mark Bowden's Killing Pablo: The Hunt for the World's Greatest Outlaw to his dad.

The book focuses on the hunt and downfall of Pablo Escobar. If you discussed cocaine in the 1980s, the name of Escobar quickly would pop up. The polar opposite of Gus, this lord of the Colombian Medellin cartel flouted law enforcement and gleefully used his earnings to curry favor with the Medellin poor by building soccer fields and churches and sponsoring sports teams.

That is the only thing that Gus and Escobar have in common. They win hearts and minds in their communities, but Gus "hides in plan sight, the same as you" as he tells Walter. Sponsor a local fun run, sell a ton of meth!

While Escobar was flamboyant and lived in a glitzy mansion in Medellin and was clad in fancy clothing, Gus is low key, dressed in muted garments that would look at home on the Sears sales rack. He virtually blends into the shadows. He deliberates each strategy carefully and quietly. Early in the season, when Walter and Jesse sought out the main local distributors, who would have guessed the head guy of Los Pollos Hermanos where they ate was their man? He even shows up at the hospital, comforting Marie and offering $10,000 reward toward apprehension of Hank's assailants -- and feeds all the cops gathered there too. It has enjoyable to watch Giancarlo Esposito immerse himself in this well modulated character.

I mistakenly thought that Hank was a dead duck and even said so in a recap of Lost, of all things, but I am -- pardon the pun -- dead wrong. Hank's doctors appeared at regular intervals through the show to give nervous bulletins that the gravely wounded DEA agent was hanging on. Walter juggled an awkward transition of assistants for the Giant Secret Cavern Laboratory, and sitting in solidarity with his clan while Hank was being treated.

The sword of Damocles over his head was to make 200 pounds of blue meth over the weekend, and his leisurely attitude toward the whole thing considerably bothered Gus' assistant, who kept checking in on the Secret Cavern Lab and wondering why no production was going on.

The assistant was also puzzled and perturbed why Walt dumped Gale as his assistant, as was the nerdy chemist himself. Neither could understand how Walt could trade in a mature guy with two degrees in organic chemistry for a seeming man-child who dashed about the expanses of the lab, acting like a 10-year-old in the action figures department at Toys "R" Us. Not to mention doing goofy, juvenile stunts, such as inflating his yellow safety suit with a vacuum device and, it is implied, nearly pulling his manhood up into said same machine.

David Costabile, as Gale, was more befuddled than his character in Flight of the Conchords ever will be in understanding why his wife is obsessed with the title folk duo. And his anger could lead to something worse. As karma has repeatedly magnified consequences of actions in this show, Gale could spell real trouble for Walt later this season.

Walt has his reasons to reunite with Jesse, as he knows the guy is puerile but also sticks to procedure and follows orders -- usually -- without much trouble. And after going through a reign of terror with Tuco Salamanca and a harrowing evasion of Hank as he tracked down their old RV, the bond between exiled high school chemistry teacher and recovering addict is potent. They are known quantities to each other, a team that fate seems to dictate must stay intact.

Some of the best scenes involved Daniel Moncada as Leonel, the one surviving cousin of Tuco. A patient is brought into the hospital, and the staff is talking about having to cut his boots off. I was trying to remember: was Hank wearing boots in his showdown with the Cousins? Then a cut to a long leather boot topped with a steel death's head. It was him, the one who didn't get the top of his head ripped off by a hollow point bullet.

In perhaps the best scene of the season, Walt is taken by the massive troop of law enforcement personnel to see the patient they repeatedly dub a "piece of shit." Leonel, his face baleful, sits in his hospital bed.

The camera pans down to -- two stumps instead of legs. Seeing "Heisenberg" standing at the front of his unwanted visitors, Leonel yanks out his IV, drops out of the bed and laboriously, furiously pulls himself toward Walt, leaving a bloody trail behind, and never saying a word.

All there is is that look of relentless vengeance as he moves toward the man he and his brother targeted in their petition to Santa Muerte (the deity seen in the village shrine in episode 1). Even as an amputee, only revenge fuels his existence. Leonel is a human Terminator, though now a very wounded one.

Either some excellent CGI, prosthetics or a stand-in amputee made Moncada look as if he had no legs. It was a stunning sequence in this engrossing show.

While Gus' assistant questions whether Walt can deliver, and if he's lost his mind in bringing that clown Jesse into the Secret Cavern Lab, Walt counters to Frings that give him a few days, and he'll double the amount of product to a whopping 400 pounds. I do believe he'll do it, even if the previews show that Jesse will flake out over that much blue meth and might get into some stupid shenanigans with Skinny Pete.

The hospital is just jam packed with DEA and Albuquerque city cops, showing that domineering, passionate and sometimes ostentatious construct of brotherhood exhibited by law enforcement and fire personnel. These men are loud and unapologetic, and there are no tears when Leonel finally goes into cardiac rest, effectively ending the Cousins' vendetta.

It was after Leonel bought it that I got the inkling great breadth of Gus' plan to sever ties with the Mexican cartel and take over. I originally thought that maybe one of those many cops sneaked in and took care of Leonel, but it seems it was Mike the Cleaner, Gus' go-to guy for dirty deeds. He cannily offers a DEA agent to the Cousins, thereby shielding Walt and knowing that his manufacturer is safe. And by having the Cousins try to murder a lawman, now the attention of his "brothers" on both sides of the border is tilted toward the cartel.

A frightened Juan Bolsa phones Gus that the federales are literally on his doorstep, and he accuses him of engineering the Cousins' attack on Hank. Gus tranquilly denies it, but Juan is totally right, a bitter realization that must pass through his head as he opens his door and meets up with a hail of bullets, which we never see but hear over Gus' phone.

For Gus, it is a sweet thought that the cartel is either gone or seriously crippled, as he hears Juan's shooting, and proceeds to calmly and leisurely snap the cell phone in half and throw it in a trash bin.

I also cannot forget as Hank's stretcher is pulled out of the ambulance, Jesse is sitting in a wheelchair, waiting for Skinny Pete to give him a ride. Jesse gets up, looks at the patient, and a look of joy spreads across his face as he recognizes the man who made mincemeat of his face in the last episode. He follows the emergency crew practically into the ER, amazed at the ways of karma and payback.

The episode's conclusion is with Hank's significant others filing into his hospital room, and he is only partially visible. The only sound is the hissing of his respirator.

With five more episodes left, will Walt keep his partnership together and meet his quota? What is Jesse going to do, and how will Walt control him? And what is up with the 18 wheeler in this week's previews, the most menacing I've seen since that old Steven Spielberg TV movie, Duel?